Description

This book traces the dynamics of international rivalry from the late 1970s up through the present. Among the members of the dominant North political discord has become prominent recently in debates ranging from the Balkan Wars to the Second Gulf War. Yet a wide array of disputes--launching of global positioning systems to steel imports--have shattered the semblance of unity and cooperation among the members of the North, the triad of Europe, U.S., and east Asia. The book explores the subversive ways in which the configuration of economic networks in east Asia are subtly leaving their mark on the structure of the world-system. Also addressed are the ramifications on the South of this sharpening rivalry and, more importantly, whether this round of imperial rivalry will eventually give way, as previously in history, to new forms of international domination.

Reviews

Allies as Rivals, though in lack of the fashionable word “empire” in its title, presents a much more nuanced analysis of U.S. transition from a hegemonic power (one that dominates through consent) into an imperial one…The coherency of the book is unusually high fo an edited volume…an array of cogent articles to remind us that U.S.’s current imperial turn is but the latest episode of U.S.’s protracted hegemonic decline since the 1970s…Allies as Rivals is indispensable on the shelf of any scholar interested in global political economic transformation. It is also an ideal text for graduate or advanced undergraduate class on international politics and globalization.”